USA > Massachusetts > Essex County > Rowley > The tercentenary celebration of the town of Rowley, 1639-1939 > Part 11
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Long Parliament assembled to mark the end of Charles' experiment in ruling a muffled people.
The Massachusetts Bay Company had proved its stability by 1639 when Rowley was settled. There were nearly 16,000 inhabi- tants, scattered among about twenty towns and villages. Roads and bridges had been built, but these were of such poor sort that the General Court had ordered surveys for new ones, and our own Bay Road was the first of these actually authorized by the Court, and that was done the very year of our birth as a town. The Rowley men may have felt a little like late-comers, as there was another road leading north from Ipswich already referred to as "the ould road to Newbury."
Sailing from Hull, England, in a ship called John, Ezekiel Rogers arrived at Salem in December, 1638, bringing with him twenty families, some of whom, but how many we do not know, came from his former English parish of Rowley, for which our town was named. On the John, on this same voyage, was the Rev. Joseph Glover, called the "Father of the American Press," as he had with him the first printing press ever brought to America. "The good man 'reached his port before the ship made land'; but his press came, and is still preserved." December was no time to start a new settlement in New England, and the company was divided, most of them spending the winter in Salem, others in Boston, and others probably in Ipswich, but a few were sent to New Haven, "to enquire into the land," as, due to Mr. Rogers' note as a man, that colony besought him to come with his people to them. However, on the advice of the ministers of Massachu- setts Mr. Rogers chose a site between Ipswich and Newbury. A pinnace was sent to New Haven for the group who had been sent down there; and about the first of May, 1639, he came here with fifty-nine or sixty families, having increased his followers during the winter by some forty families.
Mr. Rogers was a man "of some means," and many of his fellow settlers men of substance to the extent that they were desig- nated as "will-making." Perhaps their more or less degree of affluence had been bruited about to their cost, for the Yankee bent for making a profit showed itself before the nickname was acquired. So many had come here to live that a land boom had developed.
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A book, "Good News From New England," published in London, in 1648, describes it in this way:
"Get all they can, sell often than (then) and thus old Planters rise, They build to sell and sell to build where they find towns are planting."
Ipswich and Newbury had granted a few farms on the tract Mr. Rogers had selected, and the new settlers were charged eight hun- dred pounds, and what is more remarkable -- they had the money and paid the price. Some contributed more to the fund than others, and some there were who could pay nothing, but all received allot- ments of land, when it was distributed after a few years of having things in common. Naturally those who contributed most received the most land. There was more than enough to go 'round as, in 1640, the Court "Ordered, that Rowley bounds is to be eight miles from their meeting-house in a straight line; and then a cross line diameter from Ipswich Ryver to Merrimack Ryver, where it doth not preiudice any former grant." Most of this domain was held by the town, but on this common land the town granted to every man pasturage and other rights according to the amount of land he owned. Besides what is now within the boundaries of the town, Rowley included the Bradford part of Haverhill, all of Groveland, Georgetown and Boxford, and a part of Middleton.
The first minister of Rowley, Ezekiel Rogers, was its leader from the beginning, and an eminent man in the colony. By inherit- ance, by education, by the position he held in England, and by his own ability and character he was of the sort whom John White; appraised as suitable for his Puritan colonial enterprise. His father was the Rev. Richard Rogers, a prominent Puritan preacher and writer of Wethersfield, England, where Ezekiel was born, and where he spent his childhood and youth. Ezekiel graduated from Cambridge University, and there he took his Master's degree. For about twelve years he was chaplain in the home of Sir Francis Barrington, one of the great English landholders, a length of service which implies attachment of the family for the young chaplain, but it looks a little as though he wanted to put more religion into their life than they cared to have; an inference drawn from the fact that after he had left them he took Lady Barrington to task
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for "neglecting self-examination and for carelessness in the choice of associates," and from his reputation for amazing people by the clarity with which he depicted them in his public prayers. It may have been by way of putting him in a kind of remote control, but more likely it was in recognition of his ability as a preacher that, at the end of the "dozen years," in 1620, Sir Francis bestowed on him the excellent living of Rowley in Yorkshire. He was rector here of St. Peter's for about 17 years; an eloquent preacher, peo- ple coming from all the adjacent region to hear him.
There seems to have been a duality of personal charm and contrariety in Ezekiel Rogers; something of the conglomerate which inspired John Hay to nickname Henry Adams: "Porcupinus An- gelicus." The Barringtons felt it, and were devoted to him; Arch- bishop Matthew of York felt it and would not unseat him despite his Puritan obstinacy, but at length "there arose up a new king over Egypt which knew not Joseph," and Ezekiel had to leave. He gives the account himself in these words: "The Lord gave me a call to a public charge at Rowley in Yorkshire where by the gentle- ness of Toby Matthew I was favored both for subscriptions and ceremonies, and enjoyed my ministry about 17 years in comfortable sort, till, for refusing to read that accursed book which allowed sports on God's holy day, I was suspended, and * driven with many of my hearers into New England." John Calvin, the very High Priest of Puritanism, "allowed the old men to play at bowls and the young men to practice military training, after afternoon service, at Geneva," but the Sunday of our Ezekiel to us would ap- pear much like that reflected in "Adam's Diary," by Mark Twain : "Year 1, Sunday 1. Pulled through."
His truculence and stubbornness crop out all through his life, but he was a good leader, and fully aware of it. There is a tradi- tion of a stranger's inquiring of him if he were the person who served here with his quick reply: "I am, Sir, the person who rules here." He was the minister here for more than twenty years. He was prominent throughout the colony, and in him we have the epitome of the men who gave the character to the whole Puritan emigration to New England, which has left its hall-mark on a great part of American history.
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Until within comparatively recent years the religious purpose of the founding of our colony was overemphasized to the offense of later scholars, who as dogmatically asserted that the religious factor was quite insignificant compared with the economic, but the leaders were religious men, many of them rectors of important parishes in the Church of England, most of them, like our Rogers, graduates of Cambridge, a few graduates of Oxford. They did not come here in search of religious freedom in the sense that anyone would be welcome whatever his way of worship. In this they were of narrow mind, but not shallow, and they were "wise in their genera . tion," as there is more energy in a narrow faith than in a broad one; and then as now the things that counted were brains, energy and character, and they had all these qualities. Rhode Island was their "odd drawer," where, it was said, anyone who had lost his faith could find it among the sects driven out from Massachusetts.
There was a marvelous old language called the Cuneiform. Its characters were made by pressing the corner of a cube into soft clay tablets, which afterwards were baked and so preserved to our day. It was a crude method, but adequate even to the writing down of abstract ideas, and on these tablets we read not only the history but the thought of the long lost people who made them. There is a language in the angularity of Rogers and men like him; a quality not pleasant perhaps, certainly not the embodiment of "sweetness and light," but this angularity stamped their vision and their purpose on the imperishable record of our genesis. Their method was crude, but that is of passing importance. Their signi- ficance does not lie in their crudities; in their treatment of "lesser breeds without the Law," nor in their terrible witchcraft delusion, in both of which Rowley had her part. Here was imprisoned Robert Potter of Samuel Gorton's religious diversion, and Rowley contrib- uted her own Margaret Scott to the gallows as a witch, and had her Mary Post condemned to the same fate, though she was re- prieved. Their significance is not in their theological concepts. Their great significance lies in their provision for education, a matter in which Rhode Island with all her tolerance fell far short. With this provision understanding was found to follow, even to reflecting a mellow hue on their cold "beauty of holiness."
If you have been up and down Rowley River many times, you know the allurement of the creeks and cut-offs that wind through
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our marshes and among the Ipswich Hundreds, where innumerable inlets tempt you from the main stream. (That term "Hundreds" was not applied because the islands there are so many. It is an old English name for a land division in a county, and was similarly used by the Ipswich people for a part of their territory.) We have been following the main stream, and I feel the constraint of the important; important events and the succession of leading people, but little things have their interest, and for awhile I would roam with you some of the cut-offs and inlets, by-waters of our history. I do this with less compunction because of the amazing amount of that history which may be read on the very interesting markers which have been put up around the town and in the countryside; and one worth searching out I found away over in Linebrook woods.
*Only six of these markers carries the title "Mr." before the man's name, as there were only six men here who had a right to it, according to the usage of the times. "Mr." was given only to those who had taken their Master's degree at college, and to a few others, such as: professional men, eminent merchants, military of- ficers, and mates of ships. The wives of these monopolized "Mrs." "Goodman" and "Goodwife" were sufficient for the rest. Ministers for a long time were called only "Elders." Ezekiel Rogers was called "Mr." because he had a Master's degree, and at first the town was not called Rowley, but "Mr. Rogers' Plantation." Min- isters were addressed simply as "Sir," and from a wish to avoid any semblance of idolatry the apostles were often designated as: Sir Paul, Sir Peter, and Sir James.
*Social standing was defined by other things than titles. One of the other things was what a person was allowed or forbidden to wear. For the young men: "ruffs, showy belts, gold and silver buttons, 'points' at the knees, and great boots ;" for the young women : "silk or tiffany hoods or scarfs, embroidered or needleworked caps, immoderate great sleeves, cut-works - a mystery - slash apparel - another mystery - immoderate great vayles, long wings, etc., - mystery on mystery, but all recorded in the statutes, which forbid these splendors to persons of mean estate."
Here is an inlet which leads nowhere, and we back out of it with only a tale of old gossip, but which seems to be authentic, and it probably explains the loss of Rowley's earliest records. The
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night following Mr. Rogers' third and last marriage his house and barn, with everything in them, were burned, and the gossip is that a maid in his household set the fire in revenge for not herself be- coming his bride. Afterwards Mr. Rogers assembled a new library, which he left to Harvard College. In addition to these books, Harvard eventually received some $5,000.00 from his estate.
*And here is a cut-off. In those days ministers were not al- lowed to pray at funerals, nor to perform the marriage ceremony ; the latter privilege being reserved for the magistrates, "though it was thought to be carrying the monopoly too far when Governor Bellingham, in 1641, officiated at his own." However, ministers were not denied on these occasions their most cherished function of preaching. There is an amusing anecdote which shows that the custom of preaching at weddings survived until the Revolution at least. A minister about that time acceded to his daughter Mary's request that he allow her to select her text. The text was: "Mary hath chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her." But she had a younger sister who was rather difficult, and her father held in great disfavor the young man of her choice, a certain Squire Adams, by the name of John. However, she persisted, and then boldly asked that her sermon be on the text: "John came, neither eating bread, nor drinking wine, and ye say he hath a devil." Whether her text was used or not, she "lived to be the wife of one President of the United States and the mother of an- other."
A boyhood largely spent in Rowley gave me a primitive love of the region, and here, wherever a boy penetrates, the past has almost surely touched with significance. The very road by our house has had only one name, Wethersfield street, and it has had that name for three hundred years. To climb in were those in- comparable lopped oaks, huge trees, cut long ago eight or ten feet from the ground so that the new branches would form with the trunk timber for ships' knees without need of bending, but for that
* See "The Puritan Minister," by T. W. Higginson, Atlantic Monthly, Sept., 1863.
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purpose they were a failure, as they rotted in the crotch. Forty years ago there were many of these venerable trees, and one of them, still rugged, stood in the Poor Farm pasture until it was cut for firewood a few years ago. I know of none today. The Row- ley settlers had a care for their trees, which seems to indicate a relative scarcity. A town order restricted the practice of lopping, and no tree in the town streets might be cut without the consent of the Selectmen, while out in the country, to a distance of at least one and one-half miles, the cutting of trees was strictly regulated ; and no rail or post stuff was allowed to be sold out of town.
The Great Brook flowed by our pasture, a stream of New England small industries from the far past. On it was Mr. N. N. Dummer's saw-mill, and farther up, by perhaps a mile and a half, the Dodges' saw-mill. We clambered all over both; a childish re- search, as it did not occur to us that they had ever been built - they had always been, and why should we have thought otherwise, see- ing that we have to go back over two hundred years for the begin- ning of either. The dam at the Dummer saw-mill, according to the Stickney book, was built in 1699, and the history of the Dodges' mill is older than this. Sometimes we would visit another of Mr. Dummer's mills on this same Great Brook, but down there called Mill River. This was the grist mill, where flour was first put up in small five-pound packages. Mr. Dummer used to drive past our house often, and to my boyish understanding of men he was the type of New England country businessman with, to use Robert Frost's phrase for responsibility: "promises to keep."
It was on the site of this grist mill that in far earlier days Rowley led the way for the country in the textile industry, as it was here, in 1643, that John Pearson built the first fulling mill in America; a business which his family carried on at this same spot for six generations. Mr. Pearson imported his cotton from Barbados. After the grist mill was burned, in 1916, some of the long, narrow bricks were found which had been brought from England for the fulling mill.
So far as I can find decency and respectability were the rule in all parts of Rowley, but some of her neighboring towns had slums, as is indicated by their bearing such names as Hardscrabble and Hellhuddle.
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In the inlets and cut-offs there is danger of missing the tide, when the feeling comes that the way out is less important than the spot where you linger, and I fear an ebb when I have so many with me. We will return from the by-waters to the main stream, but that now leads from its well known though devious channels to an open sea which we do not know. In his address at the Byfield Bi-Centennial, Edward Everett Hale said: "The questions which excited and disturbed these Byfield men solved themselves in the course of the next hundred years. At the end, democ- racy had asserted itself, ' That was in 1902, when the world was still, and we were calmly pleased with things of homely interest. It is different now. It seems as though we were approaching a time-shed, when the pressure of an ill-conditioned world might up- set us in our bearings, but, wherever the strange tide may take us, there will be a right course of return, if only we can lay it. We were started well because the principles of the founders were sound, and they are as sound today as they were in the beginning, and be- cause they are sound they may be lost in the new disturbance, but they will have their renaissance.
WM. STICKNEY EWELL
In addition to the messages read at the Congregational Church service August 27, other letters were received from the Parish Clerk at Rowley, England, which it seems of interest to publish in this connection.
We are also publishing a copy of a letter sent after the celebra- tion to the Parish Clerk of Rowley, England, Charles Lacey, in connection with a large amount of data and pictures having to do with the celebration, and his reply on receipt of same clearly indi- cated the pleasure it afforded them to receive so much of interest in regard to our Tercentenary.
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Acacia House Little Weighton Hull, England 20-V11-39
Mr. John A. Marshall, Town Clerk
Rowley, Mass., U.S.A.
My dear Mr. Marshall, :
I was delighted to receive your kind welcome and interesting letter of the 6th inst., and to hear that you were well, and Our old Namesake, Rowley, was progressing. I am pleased to say that your letter found me fairly well, recovering from a third attack of influ- enza, which at 80 years of age is only a slow process; but I count my blessings and thank God for His many mercies.
Great changes have taken place here, both in my family, and especially the Church, since I heard from you in 1930, many old friends, including two Rectors of Rowley, the Rev: Lyonel D'Arcy Hildyard, M.A., and Canon W. Hildyard, A.K.C., and a married son and married daughter of my own having passed to their rest. Today (Thursday) the Induction of the new Rector, Rev. D. C. Urquhart, M.A., by the Bishop of Hull, takes place at Rowley Church, and I commence duty as Parish Clerk under the 5th Rector bearing the honoured name of (or having family connections with) Hildyard, who have held the living since 1704. By a singular coincidence I this week (Monday 17th July) celebrated the 57th anniversary of my appointment as Parish Clerk and Organist, Headmaster of the Little Weighton School (from which I retired under the age limit 17 years ago), Sunday School teacher and other positions in connec- tion with the Church, and it is a great comfort to feel that as far as I know all the 3,000 scholars who passed through my hands and those of my son, who succeeded me as headmaster for 10 years, are leading honest, straightforward lives. In spite, however, of deaf- ness and other infirmities I still retain my position as Parish Clerk.
Many, many thanks for kind invitation to your Great Tercenten- ary Celebrations, which we pray God may be a great success, and a memorable occasion resulting in many spiritual Blessings. What would I have given to be present? It would have been the event of my life to worship and shake hands with the descendants of families of Rowley, East Yorks, who accompanied their faithful Pastor to found its namesake in America. Kindly convey our Greetings to everyone of them. It seems a great pity that no one here is in a position to accept your kind invitation; but you shall have a mes- sage of greetings and goodwill from your Mother Church as I am arranging for your letter to be read by the Rector or myself in church next Sunday, July 23rd, and we shall look forward to receiv- ing a full programme of the celebration.
With every good wish and kindest regards from your "Brothers and Sisters" at Rowley across the sea.
Yours sincerely,
Chas: Lacey, Parish Clerk of Rowley
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(Some years ago I read a paper here on "Rowley, Past and Present," giving the names of some 20 families who accompanied their beloved pastor, Rev. Ezekiel Rogers, and showed the audience the map and pictures of the early Plantation of Rowley, U.S.A.)
Monument marking grave of Rev. Ezekiel Rogers and several of the early ministers of Rowley who served thereafter. Erected by the Ladies' Benevolent Circle of the Congregational Society, Rowley, 1851.
MARBLE MONUMENT-ROWLEY CEMETERY (East side of Central Avenue) Erected by the Ladies Benevolent Circle, of the Congregational Society, Rowley. 1851 Marks the last resting place of the first Six Ministers of Rowley REV. EZEKIEL ROGERS 1639-1660 REV. SAMUEL PHILLIPS 1651-1696 REV. SAMUEL SHEPARD 1665-1668
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REV. EDWARD PAYSON 1682-1732 REV. JEDEDIAH JEWETT 1729-1774
REV. EBENEZER BRADFORD 1782-1801
Inscription (West Front)
REV EZEKIEL ROGERS, FIRST MINISTER of ROWLEY, Born at Wethersfield, Essex Co. ENGLAND, A.D. 1590, a MINISTER in ROWLEY YORKSHIRE 17 Years. Came to this place with his CHURCH and FLOCK in APRIL 1639, Died June 23, 1660.
This ancient pilgrim nobly bore The ark of God, to this lone shore;
And here, before the throne of Heaven
The hand was raised, the pledge was given,
One monarch to obey, one creed to own, That monarch God; that creed, His word alone.
(Mr. Rogers died January 23, 1660-1, and was buried January 26, 1660-1.) Here also rest the remains of his wives. With him one came with girded hart, Through good and ill to claim her part; In life, in death, with him to seal Her kindred love, her kindred zeal.
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Little Weighton Hull, Yorkshire England 7-11-39
My dear Mr. Marshall,
Not only was I, but all the parishioners of Rowley will be de- lighted to hear that our letter of greeting to our "Brethren across the Sea" on the occasion of their Tercentenary arrived in time, and that the celebration was a great success, and the programme and especially the pictures you so kindly promise will be eagerly antici- pated. I will have the pictures posted in the Church Porch where all the parishioners can see them, and perhaps call a meeting and have a chat comprising the full history of the foundation of Rowley in America by the Rev. Ezekiel Rogers. During the 41 years I was Head Teacher here (retired 17 yrs. ago) we had many happy and inter- esting talks on Rowley in America of which many old Scholars still have pleasant recollections.
I know you will excuse this short letter when I tell you that on account of this dreadful war everything has been upset including the postage system, our collection taking place many hours earlier, and I am rushing to catch the return post.
Please accept, and convey to everybody in Rowley, Mass., our cordial greetings, kindest regards and Best Wishes. (Haste)
Yours sincerely, Chas. Lacey Parish Clerk of Rowley.
Rowley, Mass., Feb. 25, 1940.
Mr. Charles Lacey: Parish Clerk of Rowley, Yorkshire, England:
My Dear Mr. Lacey:
I am at last trying to get my letter to you regarding our Ter- centenary celebration, but first of all must offer a humble apology for the long delay in not writing you earlier, for my intentions have been good, but many, many things have been responsible for the long' delay, but I hope you will forgive me, when you have received the accounts in various forms, programs, newspaper accounts, pictures, etc., all telling in more or less detail or by pictures, some of the leading happenings of our big time to which we all look backward with feelings of pride and satisfaction, especially at having been privileged to be in some way or other a part in the program.
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